The Benefactor

New to Penguin Modern Classics for Sontag's first novelThe Benefactor is Susan Sontag's first book and first novel. It was originally published in 1963, and introduced a unique writer to the world. In the form of a memoir by a latter-day Candide named Hippolyte, The Benefactor leads us on a kind of psychic Grand Tour, in which Hippolyte's violently imaginative dream life becomes indistinguishable from his surprising experiences in the 'real world'.

“'An extraordinary, imaginative achievement that plays over the reader's senses with boldness, grace and daring.' - John Hawkes'A highly original, brilliant tale of a self-centered, solitary dilettante whose dreams take over his life.' New York Post”

'An extraordinary, imaginative achievement that plays over the reader's senses with boldness, grace and daring.' - John Hawkes 'A highly original, brilliant tale of a self-centered, solitary dilettante whose dreams take over his life.' New York Post

Susan Sontag was born in Manhattan in 1933 and studied at the universities of Chicago, Harvard and Oxford. Her non-fiction works include On Photography, Regarding the Pain of Others and At the Same Time. She was also the author of four novels, including The Volcano Lover and In America, as well as a collection of stories and several plays. She was awarded the Jerusalem Prize, and received the Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature and the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. She died in December 2004.

'A highly original, brilliant tale of a self-centred, solitary dilettante whose dreams take over his life' New York Post Hippolyte is a wealthy bohemian with a surprising, violently imaginative dream life. Taking the form of a memoir, The Benefactor is the story of his psychic grand tour through increasingly strange mental landscapes. As Hippolyte tries to make his daily existence conform to his bizarre dreamworld, and reality and fantasy become more and more indistinguishable, will he be able to find peace? Funny, acrobatic, disturbing and profound, Susan Sontag's first book, published in 1963, is a wry pastiche of the nineteenth-century novel and a bold commentary on identity and the imagination. 'Originality, economy of language, brilliance ... There is a Kafka-esque quality to The Benefactor ' Newsday 'A major writer ... she can make a real story out of dreams and thoughts' Hannah Arendt

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